Google ditches the bits in the bottom of the box

The sun is setting on another bunch of unloved, forgotten, or obsolete Google services in the Chocolate Factory’s rolling sweep of stuff that doesn’t warrant even minimal support.

The most noticeable service to get the chop is probably iGoogle, which Google’s blog post says is being wound down over the next 16 months.

The personalization service is irrelevant, it says, in a world in which personalization comes with platforms like Chrome or Android (iOS doesn’t get a mention; iGoogle for iPhone went AWOL in 2009, and there aren’t many mourners hanging around its headstone).

Google Mini is adjudged as having unnecessary overlap with the company’s Search Appliance, Site Search, and Commerce Search, so it’s on the end-of-life list from the end of this month. Current customers will get support up until the end of their contracts, and can either anticipate or fear having Google “reach out” to them in the near future.

The Google Talk widget is getting nuked from a distance in favour of the Meebo bar, and Google Video (which no longer accepts uploads) is to be unplugged by August 20, with all remaining hosted content moving or already moved to YouTube.

Finally, there’s an acknowledgement of something you probably already knew: Symbian’s decline means Google no longer sees any point in crafting a specific search tool for the platform. ®